Senate president holds up state budget
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers thought they sent the governor a bare-bones budget to keep state agencies running during a financial crisis. Turns out they were wrong.
State Senate President John Cullerton quietly used a parliamentary maneuver to block the budget after lawmakers voted on it, holding it in the Senate instead of sending it to Gov. Pat Quinn.
The action is mostly symbolic, since Quinn says he won't sign the budget. He argues it would require massive cuts in services to the state's neediest people.
But Cullerton's move is another indication of how hard it could be for state leaders to come up with a new budget before the old one expires June 30.
Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said there was no point in sending the governor a budget that he flatly rejects. "It's been made very clear to us that balancing the budget with what we had was deemed insufficient," she said Wednesday.
Quinn's office wouldn't specifically comment on Cullerton's maneuver, but spokeswoman Katie Ridgway said the governor will keep working to "pass revenue to support a fair and balanced budget."
House Speaker Michael Madigan knows about Cullerton's action and supports it, said spokesman Steve Brown. Republican legislative leaders wondered why he would want to hold up a budget that was properly approved by lawmakers but suggested the move would have little impact on negotiations.
Cullerton, Quinn and Madigan — all Chicago Democrats — support raising taxes to avoid the worst of the cuts that would be required to close an $11.6 billion budget deficit. The Senate approved a tax increase, but it failed in the House.
So lawmakers approved a budget that sponsors say would force the governor to cut spending by about $7 billion. Lawmakers sarcastically described it as a "lights on" budget — meaning it would provide enough money for agencies to keep the lights on but nothing more.
Many lawmakers, including Cullerton, said they didn't like approving cuts that would certainly mean slashing services but that there was no money available for something better. This version, they said Sunday night, would at least keep government operating while officials tried to come up with an alternative.
Quinn's office told state agencies on Wednesday to begin planning to make do with that budget for the coming year, in case nothing better is approved.
In a letter to the agencies, Chief of Staff Jerome Stermer called it a "very challenging and unpleasant task" because it could mean cutting services that "sustain the lives and well being of hundreds of thousands of our neediest citizens."
Those cuts may have to be deeper than first thought.
Quinn's office says the budget passed by lawmakers does not include enough money to match the much-reduced level of spending it contains. In other words, it was designed to eliminate the deficit but contains a deficit of its own. Quinn aides said they were still calculating the size of the gap.
Quinn and top legislators met Monday to begin negotiations on a different budget and emerged with pledges of cooperation and teamwork.
It was after that meeting, Phelon said, that Cullerton halted the budget from going to Quinn, a move that was first reported by the political newsletter Capitol Fax.
Cullerton filed a "motion to reconsider" — essentially asking for the Senate to take a second vote on the budget. That means the budget remains in the Senate until Cullerton withdraws his motion or senators formally decide whether to vote again.
Phelon said Cullerton sees no point in sending the budget to Quinn, who has been scolding lawmakers for not coming up with a better plan.
"There's a lot of talk about how Democrats are hurting the poor and not considering the needs of people who would be affected by the reality of what the budget is," she said.
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The bill is SB1197.